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I’m a feminist. I didn’t know it before because I wasn’t sure if I fit the description until I took my first sociology class at CSUSM.

My professor’s powerpoint presentation directed the class to raise their hands if anyone considered themselves a feminist. Only 3 people raised their hand and I wasn’t one of them. The next slide read: “A feminist is a person who wants equal rights for all people.” I was embarrassed.

I was embarrassed because I do believe in equal rights for all people, but I feared that my beliefs would make me look bad due to the negative connotations that come with being a feminist.

It was embarrassing that in a class of about 30 people, only 3 students were confident in identifying as a feminist, advocating for the minimum standard of equality for everyone.

Coming from an all-girls high school, I knew what sisterhood meant and experienced women supporting and positively influencing each other.

Of course, being a feminist in that environment was never perceived as a bad thing. But even then, there wasn’t much dialogue about what it meant to be a feminist and why it is important to be proud to be a feminist.

I figured feminism was a much less tangible belief system with much more complicated principals. But then I learned what real feminism aims for.

The way that feminism is perceived can quite often be exaggerated to the worst radical degree. People view feminism as a scary concept, but they are thinking of radical feminism involving plots against men and an extreme elevation of women’s status in society.

Most of the time feminist are inaccurately labeled as men-hating lesbians who refuse to shave or women who want to take men down a peg. Anyone can be a feminist, you do not have to be a woman to want equal rights for everyone.

While there are also feminists with an anti-male agenda, such beliefs are actually in relation to radical feminism. Radical feminism promotes resentment for men, sometimes women of color and transgender women. This is definitely not what real feminism is about.

Feminism involves the idea of equal treatment in all aspects of life between all sexes and refusing to be subordinate to those who demean them due to their sex.

True feminists don’t seek to bring others down, they want to see the world be a better and equal place. Feminists strive for equality, it’s that simple.

The world we live in has long seen women as objects rather than the talented and capable individuals that they are. It is time that we all acknowledge the beneficial impact that women and feminism can have if given the opportunity.

Don’t confuse feminists with radical feminists who punish men for being men. Listen to the feminists that want all men, women and other sexes to treat each other with equal respect and have an equal presence and rights in society.

It all starts with being mindful and respectful of those around you. Feminism is not a movement to rid all men from the earth, it is a movement for a better world.

1 Comment

One Response to “The drastic difference between feminism and radical feminism”

Andrea Rescigno on
October 24th, 2018 7:17 am

This is one of poorest articles I’ve read regarding the “difference” between feminism and radical feminism. Equality, first of all, has never existed between men and women in US society, and the author doesn’t realize the implications of radical feminism when it came to even getting the right to vote, the right to get an abortion, or even the right to report sexual harassment (which was legally accepted by the Supreme Court as sex discrimination after a dissertation was written by the RADICAL feminist Catharine MacKinnon). The whole notion of radical feminism isn’t to hate men, and if it were then we’d be in a loads of trouble as many of the women have had relationships with men, the so-called enemy, but it is to advocate the idea that women need to overturn the socio and economic aspects of everything in society in order to be free of the oppression that holds them down because they are woman. Liberal feminism is great and all until you realize society favors men over women. I’d encourage you to read Dr. MacKinnon’s work, as well as Andrea Dworkin’s work, another radical feminist. Susan Brownmiller is another great woman who did tremendous work on recognizing the social implications of rape on women, realizing it wasn’t talked about much, but it affected a tremendous amount of women and every aspect of their lives. Radical feminism is needed now more than ever, but you wouldn’t realize it given by the lack of details and research into it.
Sincerely, a radical feminist.